Birmingham City FC

Birmingham City FC - also known as the Blues - is a professional football club, playing in the English Championship League, after being relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2007-2008 season. So far in the club history Birmingham City FC has only won one major trophy, when they won the League Cup in 1963.

The club has yet to play in any of the major European tournaments. Birmingham City FC was, however, the first British club to compete in Europe, when they participated in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, today replaced by the UEFA Cup.

Birmingham City FC play their home games at St. Andrews, a 30,000 capacity all-seater stadium, and the clubs home ground since 1906.

The club is owned by a number of shareholders. In July 2007, Hong Kong based businessman Carson Yeung has bought a major stake in Birmingham City FC, which could lead to him fully taking over the club. Over the past few weeks, however, the deal has been brought into doubt, because Carson Yeung is struggling to raise the required cash for the buy-out.

Birmingham City FC is managed by former Scotland International manager, Alex McLeish, who took over from Steve Bruce who left the club to become the new manager of Wigan Athletic FC.

Team captain is Damien Johnson, a Northern Ireland international, playing in midfield.

Other key players in the squad are: Maik Taylor (GK), Liam Ridgewell (D), Gary McSheffrey (M) and Mikael Forssell (A)